When planning a flight most people focus on flying out of major airports, hopping from one metropolitan area to another. Plotting a course that starts in a regional airport can lead to significant savings and less hassle.

Over at the frugality blog Wisebread they've put together a list of ways you can save money on airfare and travel expenses. Among them:

Use Regional Airports: Again often missed by major search engines (and even some travel agents), be sure to check out what the smaller regional airports can offer. For example, the best way to fly to Toronto from select U.S. cities is with Porter Airlines, which flies into Toronto's regional Island Airport. From there, you're the world's shortest ferry ride away from the heart of downtown Toronto. Here are just some of the potential benefits of flying with regional airports:

You'll save time and money on transportation to and from large airports.

You'll save money on airport taxes by using regional airports in lieu of larger international ones.

Security lines and checkpoints are usually smaller.

Regional airports often cater to business travelers, so the quality of travel and service can be superior.

I started using regional airports when, upon realizing I lived almost right between Detroit Metro and the Flint Regional airports I tried out Flint. Not only was it more pleasant to fly out of Flint—parking lot to boarding can be as short as 30 minutes on a slow travel day—it was cheaper and has consistently been so.

The last time I needed to fly to New York, the short notice ticket from Detroit was $1200 and the ticket from Flint was $212. Like they highlight in the tip at Wisebread with the Toronto example, you'll want to check out which major airline is the major one at the regional airport. Flint, for example, is part of the AirTran network and flying from Flint to their hub in Atlanta is practically as cheap as your cab fare to even get to the airport.

Check out the article at Wisebread for more tips and if you have some of your own to share we'd love to hear them in the comments.